Trading Kyrie Irving now would be an absolute disaster for the Mavericks

Many rival fans and media members would cite the age gap between Kyrie Irving (34 years old) and Cooper Flagg (19 years old) as a reason to trade Irving and jumpstart the Flagg era for the Dallas Mavericks, but the Mavericks need to continue to stand pat on their stance of keeping Irving around, as trading him right now would be a huge disaster.

As was cited in NBA insider Marc Stein's Substack recently, rival teams are wondering (subscription required) if Dallas will continue to swat away trade interest in Irving ahead of the February 11 trade deadline. There are multiple reasons why the Mavericks should continue to hold that stance, starting with the fact they don't own their 2027 first-round draft pick, as tanking this season won't be as beneficial as last year.

This isn't the time for the Mavericks to trade Kyrie Irving

Sure, the Mavericks don't project to be contenders, but adding Irving to the mix, along with other new additions, makes this roster far better on paper compared to last year. Not to mention, Irving's tutelage and veteran mentorship are invaluable on this young roster following the departure of Klay Thompson, as Irving is far and away the oldest player on Dallas' roster, with Caleb Martin being the only other player beyond his 20s.

Is trading Irving down the line a viable way to help kickstart Dallas' foundation around Flagg? 100 percent, but this simply isn't the route the Mavericks can afford to take at this moment. If Dallas were to trade Irving right now, their already lackluster playmaking and shot creation would be magnified tenfold, and they'd inevitably struggle to be even close to a play-in caliber team for the second year in a row.

Thus, Dallas' best option is to be in lockstep with Irving throughout this process and play things by ear. If Dallas gets close to the trade deadline and it's clear they won't even sniff the play-in, then it's probably time to pull the plug and ship Irving to a contender for a package of first-round picks and intriguing young flyer(s).

Dallas needs to see Flagg and Irving play together before trading Irving

However, this scenario hasn't presented itself yet, and Mavericks fans still have yet to even see Flagg and Irving on the court together. Given this, there's a level of intrigue to see how good they can be together after Irving's long sabbatical recovering from his torn ACL, as well as Flagg heading into his second season.

From Dallas' perspective, it's worth keeping Irving around for the time being, especially given the fact that Dallas projects to be roughly a .500 team ahead of this season, and could actually enter the contender sphere in the following season if Masai Ujiri and company make the right moves with this roster.

Obviously, Irving and Flagg's career arcs don't intertwine with each other based on the fact that they have a 15-year age gap, but that isn't to say a formidable roster can't be built around them based on how talented they are. They also both went to Duke, and Flagg is one of the most easygoing personalities out of any young star in the NBA, so it's honestly harder to see how they wouldn't gel on the court together compared to how they could.

Irving is also beloved in Dallas and has enjoyed his time here, so there's no reason to rush moving on from him unless Dallas is offered some tremendous package they simply couldn't refuse. To top things off, there aren't many realistic scenarios that Dallas would covet in terms of trading him when looking at different contenders across the league that need a shot creator, so Dallas is smart to continue to hold their water on trading Irving until circumstances change.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow